Let me guess. Is this your idea of bar prep?
- Listen to lectures while sitting still like a statue
- Pause to take notes and fill in the blanks (doubling the time it takes to finish the lectures)
- Read giant outlines and fall asleep with the lights on (osmosis didn’t work)
It’s like you’re experiencing the most annoying part about traveling—sitting for hours next to someone who takes up the armrest even though they got the window seat.
And repeating this every day. Is this what Limbo is like?
You’re drained and demoralized because you’re trying to “study” but aren’t feeling a sense of progress as words and days pass by you.
But why are you trying to do this the hard way?
Consuming is more tiring than doing
Would you rather overexert yourself, or get the scores you want with an easier way?
Trying to hold all these rules and abstract ideas in your head is more difficult and less effective than turning them into practical insights. It’s as if they’re situationships that could leave any day rather than being locked down.
How do you mold abstract information into concrete understanding? Test yourself by struggling through past exam questions and learning from model answers. Get to know them better instead of just being screwed.
Bonus: You remember ideas better when used in context (aka example questions).
Your body is better at learning by example. Clarity comes from DOING. You remember ideas better when used in context (like practice questions).
That’s why being “familiar” with a rule won’t save you on the bar exam. That’s why you won’t remember 99% of what you consume passively. Vibes-based knowledge is quickly forgotten.
Absorbing information feels comfortable and easy. And it does work at first! You need that initial foundation.
The insidious part is that you feel like you need to do MORE of it even when (and because) it stops feeling productive. High achievers often find temptation in the illusion of action, thinking that good things will happen only if you do MORE (of the thing that isn’t bringing results).
This makes you more and more stuck without you knowing why. DOING is LESS exhausting than THINKING about doing it.
Remember that we don’t get scored on how well we watch videos and read books. We’re scored on how correctly we answer questions.
We don’t like testing ourselves and grading ourselves at first because it bruises our ego. But not passing hurts more than struggling now. The way you win more is to lose more.
Like going to the gym, it’s worth it once we push through that initial resistance and end up sore with a pump the next day.
Eat and then digest
It seems effective at first to focus on absorbing the information. You feel better if you get your ducks in a row first.
This is called “studying.” Studying and learning are not the same.
To be clear, the issue is NOT that you’re studying outlines and getting a structured introduction to the material from lectures.
When you’re hungry, you eat.
The issue is when ALL you do is eat, when you continue doing this well past diminishing returns. You stuff yourself with lectures and outlines (study) BUT don’t bother to process and digest what you consumed (learn and retain by applying to exercise questions). You pile up bricks without building anything.
Instead: Eat and then digest.
It’s normal to switch to a more conscious and effective approach when what you’re “supposed to” doesn’t work. In fact, a lot of repeaters end up passing when they switch away from the traditional bar review.
(This is why I believe repeaters actually have a better chance of passing: They’re not starting from scratch. They’re starting from experience.
I’ve seen way too many successful repeaters to think that there’s some inherent disadvantage of being a repeater or taking the exam in February.)
Once we get over the FOMO from lectures and trying to review everything “just in case,” we realize that the way to gain the skill to write passing essays and answer MBE questions is quite simple:
You attempt to solve a question ➡ You get things wrong ➡ You figure out what you did right or wrong ➡ You realize what to do differently next time based on your errors.
The most effective way to learn is by trial and error.
Treat yourself like some kind of artificial intelligence. This is how machine learning works.
Simple, right?
But you already knew what to do. The problem is that you don’t trust yourself enough to do it.
There’s a lot of bloat and distraction out there.
Reduce the noise, and focus on what’s important
Should you collect a pile of study resources (that you can’t even pick from)? Ask for everyone’s study schedules? Join every study group?
It’s exciting when you sign up for a new thing or get a shiny new tool! Until it becomes overwhelming. Organizing the tools and deciding which ones to use become more of a task than the actual work.
We want a higher signal-to-noise ratio and lower bloat. Sometimes you have to try different things to know what works well for you.
What is the right approach for you? It’s whatever helps you understand and retain the material and answer questions correctly. Instead of hunting for the best strategy, find the right one.
As you find out what works for you, be discerning about how you allocate your limited time and energy and what introduces noise in your study system.
It’s not just about time. You have a lot of time to prepare.
It’s actually our mental energy that becomes a bottleneck. When you’re exhausted, you can’t do anything even if you have the time.
What are some ways to save yourself the mental exhaustion?
1) Know highly tested topics
Did you know that there are three areas on the MBE that are tested the most?
- Negligence (50% of all Torts questions)
- Individual rights under 1st, 5th, 14th Amendments (50% of all Con Law questions)
- Constitutional protection of accused persons (50% of all Crim Pro questions)
The NCBE tells us that there WILL be 12-13 questions for EACH of these areas. That’s a whopping 36-39 questions just on the above topics.
I break down some of the most frequent subtopics here. (Magicsheets and Passer’s Playbook come with a spreadsheet that tells you the exact breakdowns of all the subtopics.)
If you master these big topics, there’s a better chance of scoring high on the MBE. You get the most bang for your mental effort if you have at least these areas down.
2) Active learning (vs. passive learning)
Issues and rules are not born equal.
You’ll see certain issues and rules pop up more often than others. Those are the important ones to know because it’s likely that they’ll come up again.
But it’s not just about having this knowledge (or knowledge about which MBE topics are highly tested above). You have to live and experience it yourself.
This kind of “click” moment is so important to bar exam takers.
Those “aha” moments are like little dopamine hits. They introduce more enjoyment (and thus less mental friction) than memorizing abstract ideas.
But if all you did was memorize some rule as a fact, your body has no clue what it needs to do.
“Stop standing there, and give it a try. Techniques that are only shown to you are completely useless. It’s only when you experience them yourself that you can learn how to use and execute them effectively.”
Wrestling with past exam questions (and model answers and explanations) will show you what’s most important and how to solve it. The past will guide your future.
3) Find the sweet spot in the tools you use
You don’t always need to add complexity.
Maybe you don’t need another cup of coffee. Maybe you just need some hydration and sleep (a Frappuccino is NOT hydration).
Maybe you don’t need a bunch of different outlines or classes or crazy schedules or other shiny objects. Maybe you just need 1 or 2 go-to references to keep it simple. Save yourself the frustration of cross-checking everything.
The resources out there can all be useful in their own ways. Just pick a few and USE them. It’s more effective to be the best student than to seek the perfect tutor, course, or outline.
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